Famous Quotations from Antony and Cleopatra

The triple pillar of the world transformed Into a strumpet’s fool. (1.1.13)

There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned. (1.1.15)

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair And such a twain can do’t. (1.1.34)

O excellent! I love long life better than figs. (1.2.35)

On the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. (1.2.91)

The nature of bad news infects the teller. (1.2.104)

I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is mettle in death which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. (1.2.151)

Indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow. (1.2.182)

In time we hate that which we often fear. (1.3.13)

Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows bent. (1.3.36)

O! my oblivion is a very Antony, And I am all forgotten. (1.3.92)

It hath been taught us from the primal state That he which is was wished until he were, And the ebbed man, ne’er loved till ne’er worth love, Comes deared by being lacked. This common body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. (1.4.42)

Give me to drink mandragora. (1.5.4)

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou mov’st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men. He’s speaking now, Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’ (1.5.22)

Think on me, That am with Phoebus’ amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? (1.5.28)

My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then! (1.5.74)

Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite. (2.1.30)

I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech. (2.2.118)

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggared all description; she did lie In her pavilion,–cloth-of-gold of tissue,– O’er-picturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature; on each side her Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did. (2.2.200)

Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i’ the eyes, And made their bends adornings; at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony, Enthroned i’ the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too And made a gap in nature. (2.2.215)

I saw her once Hop forty paces through the public street; And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted That she did make defect perfection, And, breathless, power breathe forth. (2.2.237)

Men’s judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. (3.13.36)

O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me. (4.9.13)

The hearts That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Caesar. (4.10.34)

The soul and body rive not more in parting Than greatness going off. (4.11.6)

Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish; A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A towered citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon ‘t, that nod unto the world And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs; They are black vesper’s pageants. (4.12.2)

I will be A bridegroom in my death, and run into ‘t As to a lover’s bed. (4.12.100)

All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise. (4.13.3)

So it should be, that none but Antony Should conquer Antony. (4.13.14)

I am dying, Egypt, dying; only I here importune death awhile, until Of many thousand kisses the poor last I lay upon thy lips. (4.13.19)

The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o’ the world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman; a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. (4.13.53)

What’s brave, what’s noble, Let’s do it after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to take us. (4.13.87)

My desolation does begin to make A better life. ‘Tis paltry to be Caesar; Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave, A minister of her will; and it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change, Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug, The beggar’s nurse and Caesar’s. (5.2.1)

For his bounty, There was no winter in’t; an autumn was That grew the more by reaping; his delights Were dolphin-like, they showed his back above The element they lived in; in his livery Walked crowns and crownets, realms and islands were As plates dropped from his pocket. (5.2.79)

Mechanic slaves With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers. (5.2.252)

Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the dark. (5.2.193)

Antony Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness I’ the posture of a whore. (5.2.218)

My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing Of woman in me; now from head to foot I am marble-constant, now the fleeting moon No planet is of mine. (5.2.238)

A very honest woman, but something given to lie. (5.2.252)

I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not. (5.2.276)